This medicine may help restore damage caused by strokes, according to a pioneering new study from the University of Cincinnati

The groundbreaking preclinical study was published in Cell Reports on July 26 by researchers from Case Western Reserve University and the University of California.

There are currently no FDA-approved medications that can reverse the effects of a stroke. Researchers discovered that the medicine NVG-291-R helped animals with severe ischemic stroke recover their nerve systems and significantly improved their functional abilities. Molecular target deletion also affects neural stem cells.

Agnes (Yu) Luo, lead author, says, “We are very excited about the data showing significant improvement in motor function, sensory function, spatial learning and memory.”

If the preliminary findings are replicated in clinical settings, the medicine would represent a “substantial breakthrough,” according to Luo. To find out if the drug works the same way to fix the damage caused by ischemic strokes in people, more research and confirmation of results from different groups will be needed. More research will need to be done to find out if NVG-291-R can fix the damage caused by hemorrhagic strokes in both animal models and people.

“Most therapies being researched today primarily focus on reducing the early damage from stroke,” Luo adds. “However, our group has focused on neurorepair as an alternative and now has shown that treatment with NVG-291-R not only results in neuroprotection to reduce neuronal death but also robust neuroreparative effects.” 

The research also revealed that the medication worked even when administered up to seven days after the stroke’s onset.

“The only current FDA-approved drug for treatment of stroke does not repair damage and must be administered within 4.5 hours of stroke onset.” adds the author. “Most therapies being researched need to be applied within 24-48 hours of a stroke’s onset. A product that works to repair damage from stroke even a week after symptom onset would change the paradigm for stroke treatment.” 

Co-author of the study Jerry Silver says that the research demonstrated that the drug repaired damage through at least two mechanisms: fostering the migration of newly formed neurons derived from neuronal stem cells to the site of the damage and creating new neuronal connections.

“NVG-291-R’s ability to enhance plasticity was demonstrated by using staining techniques that clearly showed an increase in axonal sprouting to the damaged part of the brain,” Silver adds. “This enhanced plasticity is an excellent validation of the same powerful mechanisms that we and other researchers were able to demonstrate using NVG-291-R in spinal cord injury.”  

NVG-291 is now being investigated in healthy human volunteers in a Phase 1 clinical trial by NervGen Pharma Corp., which owns the worldwide rights to the medicine. NervGen plans to start patient safety and effectiveness trials in 2022 and 2023. These trials will look at spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

Source: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111137

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